Soulblade (10 page)

“Fun?” Phelistoth said, his tone flat.

“You’re right. It wasn’t much fun. I didn’t get to light any explosives. If I had, there would have been arms and legs all over this swamp.” Kaika grinned down at a man staring up at her. He must have understood their language, because his face paled and he ducked her gaze, staring down at his bleeding thigh.

“Where were you?” Colonel Quataldo asked the dragon, less subtle than Kaika. “The airship didn’t see you, did it?”

The dragon’s eyes narrowed. “We went hunting. I require food after flying across an ocean. I assure you, nobody saw me except for my dinner.”

Cas was glad Phelistoth’s cold amber eyes were not pointed in her direction.

Quataldo returned the gaze without flinching. “We would appreciate it if you would let us know when you’re leaving the group.”

“I am not here to fight your battles, human.”

“Why
are
you here?”

“I asked him to come.” Tolemek looked up, some of his greenish salve dangling from his fingers. He shook his head slightly at Quataldo. A warning? “Actually I asked Tylie to ask him. At the king’s request.”

“If the king didn’t want him here to help us with our battles, then what?”

“He did warn us about the airship,” Cas said. She had no problem letting Phelistoth come and go as he wished and relying only upon the team. She preferred that, actually.

“And I shall warn you about it again.” Phelistoth turned to face downriver, his eyes lifting toward the sky. “It appears they, too, heard your noisy battle and are coming to investigate.”

“Dragon spit,” Kaika said, “I might as well have thrown some explosives.”

“It’s coming inland?” Blazer asked. “We need to camo these fliers quick. Raptor, Duck, Pimples, get your nets out.”

Cas hustled to obey. “How long do we have?” she asked over her shoulder.

“The bloated craft is slow, but already it turns up the river,” Phelistoth said.

Kaika cursed and glared down at their captives. “You couldn’t have hunted your crocs ten miles
that
way?” She flung her hand toward the swampy depths, shadows growing deep between the trees as twilight deepened.

One of the men sneered at her, but nobody spoke. Quataldo merely continued to tie the prisoners.

“Is there any way to tell if it’s a merchant airship?” Cas dug into the small storage compartment behind the second seat of her flier, tugging out the bundle of netting designed to make what it covered look like a mound of earth. She did not know how effective the brown and green colors would be when draped over mud in a swamp, but there wasn’t time to move the fliers, nor was there anywhere to move them to—the trees around the inlet were too densely packed.

“I do not know the difference between your merchant ships and other ships.” Phelistoth curled his lip, letting them know that he didn’t
care
about the difference. Of course not. A ship full of humans wouldn’t have the means to hurt him.

“It’s an imperial warship,” Tylie said.

“What?” several voices asked at once.

She was still kneeling beside her patient, a hand on the man’s chest, but she gazed at the sky, her eyes glassy. “Many cannons, many men, and...” She looked toward Phelistoth.

“A sorcerer,” he said. “Yes. A weak one.”

Cas did not stop tugging the netting over her flier, but she groaned. Without Sardelle here and with Phelistoth an unreliable ally, what would they do against magic users?

“You think all of the sorcerers in this time are weak,” Tylie chided.

She didn’t sound nearly as worried as Cas felt. She couldn’t
shoot
a sorcerer. All the ones she had encountered had the ability to shield themselves from bullets.

“They are,” Phelistoth said.

“Not so weak that they won’t sense us.”

“That is true. My presence may be drawing this one.”

“Wonderful.” Quataldo frowned at the half-covered fliers. “We may have to abort. We can’t take down an airship on our own.”

“Aw, sir, where’s your sense of arrogance?” Kaika asked. “I brought
plenty
of explosives.”

“What are they doing down here? You’re sure it’s an imperial ship?”

Tylie nodded.

“They may be part of an advance party,” Tolemek said, “to ensure it’s safe for the emperor to come down.”

“I can leave,” Phelistoth said. “Then my aura will not be a problem. Tylie can hide the rest of you.”

Cas jumped down from her flier. “Hide? How?” She draped a corner of the camo netting artistically across the stump.

“I can’t hide us from their eyes,” Tylie said, “but when Morishtomaric was looking for us, I learned how to hide our auras, to make him believe we were dead. I believe it could fool a sorcerer.”

Quataldo nodded. “Good. Do that now. Everyone under the camo or into the trees.” He glanced up. “The branches and leaves should cover these men from the sky, as long as they don’t make noise.” He glowered at the ones who were awake. “I’ll fashion gags. Everyone else, hide any sign that we were here.”

Cas finished arranging the netting, staked a couple of corners into the mud, then crawled underneath it. She wanted to be able to look up through the holes and watch the airship, see if it truly was a Cofah craft.

Phelistoth walked into the woods, soon disappearing from sight. The rest of the team hid near the tree trunks, where the thick foliage would hide them from above. Tolemek squirmed under the netting and crouched beside Cas.

“I had a feeling when your king gave us this mission that it wouldn’t be as easy as he thought,” he murmured.

“I don’t know that he thought it would be easy. Maybe he just considered us expendable.” Cas bumped her shoulder against his.

“Speak for yourself. His army has ordered five hundred jars of my healing salve, and I haven’t been able to fill that order yet. I’m not expendable.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Though she kept her rifle in one hand, she clasped his closest hand with her other.

“I hope this display of affection doesn’t mean you’re sure we’re in a dire situation and about to die,” he murmured, squeezing her hand back.

“No, it means I’m having a hard time keeping my balance with three inches of mud sucking at my boots, and I need you for support.”

He snorted. “Always glad to be support.”

“I know.” Cas thought about leaning over to kiss him on the cheek, but a strange sensation came over her. She froze, trying to examine it. Some probe from the enemy sorcerer? No, it felt less inimical than that.

“That’s Tylie,” Tolemek murmured. “I don’t know how she’s doing it, but I can feel her... laying a blanket on us. Magical camo netting.”

Cas started to reply, but shut her mouth when the bow of an airship came into view high above. Her stomach sank down to rest between her boots as she recognized the green and gray Cofah colors. From directly beneath it, she couldn’t see weaponry or soldiers stalking the deck, but she knew they were there. Was this a single craft, scouting ahead and reporting to the emperor as Tolemek suspected? Or was it one of many? What if Salatak had sent a whole fleet ahead? If the sorcerer up there had sensed Phelistoth, would the wedding or at least the emperor’s attendance of the wedding be called off?

“Tylie says she thinks it’s a shaman, not a sorcerer,” Tolemek whispered.

“What’s the difference?” Cas averted her eyes as the rest of the airship hull came into view, lumbering over their muddy inlet. She worried that the craft wasn’t high enough for the lookouts to be fooled by the camo.

“I’m not sure, except that sorcerers come out of Cofahre and Iskandia and have—had—a formal school with a lot of written tests and study. The magic users from this continent have an oral tradition and some different ways. She says we’ll also need to look out for animal familiars.”

Cas remembered General Zirkander telling the story of battling a shaman and a giant owl familiar and how the outpost had needed Sardelle’s help to defeat them. Once again, Cas wished Sardelle had come with them. Tylie might be a better resource than Cas had expected, but she wouldn’t be as experienced.

“Maybe that’s what Phelistoth hunted down for dinner,” Cas murmured.

“That would be nice.”

The airship disappeared from sight as it continued upriver. Cas hoped their subterfuge had worked, but even if it had, would it be enough? Her gaze settled on their prisoners, prisoners they couldn’t take along but that they couldn’t let go, not without further risk of being discovered.

Chapter 4

F
lying on a dragon’s back was exhilarating—and terrifying. Sardelle did not feel the wind like she expected, not the way she did when she cruised in Ridge’s flier. A comforting cloak of magic wrapped around her, keeping her astride Bhrava Saruth, not dissimilarly to the harness in Ridge’s back seat. Except that the “harness” was made of strands of invisible power. She was glad Bhrava Saruth cared enough to put out the effort, because they were zipping along more quickly than a flier, the land below passing by in a blur. The jagged peaks of the Ice Blades grew larger with each passing moment, the dawn sky lightening from pink to blue behind them.

We will arrive soon, high priestess.

Excellent. Thank you. You can call me Sardelle, if you wish.
She certainly wished he would, but she didn’t want to complain when he was doing this favor for her. She wondered what she could do to pay him back.

Perhaps you can find him a worshipful ingénue or two in the villages down there,
Jaxi suggested.

Maybe I can get him some of that cheese that Phelistoth likes.

They passed a flock of ducks, startling the poor creatures into diving for the nearest lake. Despite the magical harness, Sardelle held on tightly as Bhrava Saruth’s back tilted and they climbed toward the tops of the mountains. She closed her eyes and rested her face against his cool scales. Tylie had taken to this right away, but Sardelle found it more alarming than riding in Ridge’s flier, perhaps because she didn’t know if Bhrava Saruth was exactly what he appeared or if he had hidden—and possibly dangerous—depths.

Speaking of dangerous depths, you better make sure the king’s orders don’t fly out of your pack,
Jaxi said.
Therrik may greet you with Kasandral in hand, especially if you come in on dragonback.

They’re securely fastened.
She did intend to have the king’s orders in hand as soon as they landed. Just because Therrik had called her an asset in that report did not mean he would be eager to help her.

As they passed the first peaks and headed closer to the spine of the Blades, Sardelle opened her eyes and leaned her head to the side of Bhrava Saruth’s neck so she could watch the glaciers and valleys passing below. They weren’t to the crash site yet, but if Ridge had walked away and hadn’t been able to climb back up to the outpost, he might be searching for a route that would take him out of the mountains. Flying made the peaks seem less daunting, but she remembered from her childhood just how long it took to traverse the Ice Blades and that climbing gear was required in many places.

There are people here and there
, Bhrava Saruth informed her,
but I do not believe they are the one you seek
.

She did not know if he could recognize Ridge’s aura through her thoughts, but she said,
Thank you for looking.
She would keep searching herself.

I’m looking too,
Jaxi said.
I hope I’ll be wrong and that he’s alive.

Thank you.

Bhrava Saruth took them over the crash site, the rocky slope still in shadow as the sun rose behind Goat Mountain. She spotted the remains of the flier once again. Nothing had changed, not that she had expected it to. Ridge wouldn’t have been able to climb back up to it if he had fallen out and into the river below. That river was even farther below than she remembered, and the pit of her stomach grew heavy. Maybe she
was
being delusional about all this. Maybe there was no way he could have survived.

Do you wish to search further now, high priestess? Or collect your servant in the human fort first?

My, ah, servant?
Sardelle was quite positive she hadn’t explained Therrik that way.

He will serve you in this matter, yes? My priestess should have as many servants as she needs.

Just don’t call him that.
Sardelle pointed to the slope.
Do you think it’s possible to find a spot to land down there? By the wreckage?

They had not been able to do that in the fliers. Even the two-seat models with the thrusters required a flat surface for landing.

Yes, of course.
Bhrava Saruth tilted his wings and they swooped low.

Even though he had talons and could grasp onto a perch like a bird, she wondered at finding a landing spot down there. It was so steep. If the body of the flier hadn’t come to a stop behind a boulder embedded in the earth, it would have fallen all the way down into the canyon below.

Bhrava Saruth slowed himself as he neared the ground by tilting his body upward. His talons came out, and he alighted on the boulder right next to what remained of the battered flier. The big rock shifted, and pebbles bounced down the slope, skipped over the edge, and disappeared into the canyon. Sardelle tightened her grip on Bhrava Saruth’s smooth scales as the boulder shifted more, a soft scraping sound coming from below. He adjusted his weight, and it grew still. She told herself that he would simply leap up and flap his wings if it gave away, but she couldn’t help but feel as if her life teetered on the edge. From above, she hadn’t realized just how steep this slope was. She couldn’t imagine that Ridge could have walked away without falling.

Regardless, she looked to either side of the crumpled flier, seeking footprints or skid marks that might indicate someone had disturbed the rocks. From her position near Bhrava Saruth’s shoulders, it was hard to read signs on the ground.

Bhrava Saruth bent his head, his long neck allowing him to lower his snout to the earth. He sniffed at the cockpit of the flier, then sniffed at the ground all around it.